Santa Claus had a close call with destiny on Saturday, at Disneyland's "A Christmas Fantasy Parade." The float he was riding in simply collapsed, launching him off the float. Fortunately for Santa (and kids everywhere), Santa Clause was wearing a harness. So when the float collapsed, he just dangled there for a couple of minutes.
It's a scary thing to see Santa Claus almost die. When Debby and I were visiting Belize in 2009, we ran into a full-on Mardi Gras-style Christmas parade (oddly, on the way to a sports bar to see Mark Ingram get his Heisman).
Santa, of course, got the biggest float in the Christmas parade. He was so high up on that float that the traffic light fixtures were right about the level of his neck. Our Belizean Santa was paying no attention to what was in front of him, instead waving at kids and tossing out throws.
But we could see it coming! The float was approaching the next traffic light, and Santa Claus was oblivious. People started furiously yelling things at him, lifesaving things like "Duck, Santa!" He ducked a split second before getting hit with that fixture. Talk about a sigh of relief! I've got a picture somewhere that shows just how close a call it was, but I don't really need it. I can still see Santa ducking under that traffic light fixture, getting out of the way at (literally) the last second... and saving Christmas.